Watch Breaking the Maya Code

Breaking the Maya Code is a documentary film released in 2008, directed by David Lebrun, that explores the untangling of the ancient Maya hieroglyphic writing system that had puzzled generations of scholars. The film focuses on the people and processes that contributed to decoding these intricate symbols, which revealed great detail about the civilization that created them.

The film opens with an introduction to the ancient Maya civilization, a highly advanced society that thrived in what is today Central America and Southern Mexico from about 2000 BC to 1500 AD. The Maya are best known for their monumental architecture, complex calendar system, and their hieroglyphic writing that was used to record their history, religion, and daily life.

The audience is then introduced to the central figures in the story, including Michael D. Coe, a renowned Maya scholar and author of the influential book "The Maya" (1966), Ian Graham, a British archaeologist who recorded many of the ancient Maya inscriptions, and Nikolai Grube, a German linguist who contributed significantly to the decipherment of the Maya glyphs.

We follow the early attempts to crack the Maya code, starting with the Spanish conquest of the Americas, which led to the burning of thousands of Maya books and the exile of their scholars. Europeans who encountered the Maya inscriptions saw them as mysterious and exotic, and many believed that they contained hidden knowledge or even prophecies. However, none were able to make much sense of the elaborate glyphs, which consisted of complex combinations of images, numbers, and abstract signs.

It wasn't until the 20th century that breakthroughs began to happen. The film shows how a series of chance discoveries, such as the excavation of the tomb of the Maya ruler Pakal in Mexico in the 1950s, provided key clues to the meaning of some of the glyphs. These findings were soon supported by the work of epigraphists, archaeologists, and linguists who began to decipher the hieroglyphs by looking for patterns, similarities, and context.

The film highlights the contributions of key figures in the field, including Tatiana Proskouriakoff, a Russian-American archaeologist who developed ground-breaking methods for interpreting the glyphs as hieroglyphic writing rather than as mere decoration or art; Yuri Knorozov, a Russian linguist who developed the first systematic approach to cracking the Maya code, and Linda Schele, an American expert on Maya epigraphy who was instrumental in uncovering the meanings of glyphs related to time, religion, and mythology.

The film also explores the controversy and debate that accompanied the decipherment process. Some scholars resisted new interpretations, insisting on a purely pictographic view of the glyphs or subscribing to outdated ideas about the Maya culture. Others, such as the Maya themselves, who were largely excluded from the academic community, saw the decipherment as a way to reclaim their heritage and challenge the colonial narratives that had distorted their past.

Throughout the film, we get to see the Maya glyphs come alive in stunning visual representations that illustrate their meaning and context. We see Maya stelae, stone monuments covered with hieroglyphs, that tell the stories of rulers, wars, and alliances. We see Maya codices, ancient books made of bark paper, that contain the secrets of the cosmos and the rituals of their faith. We see Maya ceramics, adorned with glyphs that speak of love, trade, and agriculture. And we see Maya architecture, with facades covered with intricate carvings that encode the history of their cities.

Breaking the Maya Code is a fascinating and informative film that sheds light on one of the great mysteries of the ancient world. It shows the human side of scholarship, the passion, and the perseverance that led to the unlocking of a complex system of writing that had been lost for centuries. It celebrates the Maya culture and its resilience, and it invites us to marvel at the ingenuity and creativity of the human mind.

Breaking the Maya Code is a 2008 documentary with a runtime of 1 hour and 57 minutes. It has received mostly positive reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 7.7.